


Save the Last Dance for Me

by crystalkeery



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Harringrove, Inspired by Stranger Things (TV 2016), Prom, Steve Harrington - Freeform, billy hargrove - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 04:39:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14947763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalkeery/pseuds/crystalkeery
Summary: Billy Hargrove has been missing since February. All he left Steve with was a note saying “I’m sorry” - until prom night.





	Save the Last Dance for Me

**Author's Note:**

> Extra Warning: Suicidal Thoughts  
> This is my first fic I'm posting from my blog stevesfawcettspray on Tumblr!

Billy Hargrove had been filed as a missing person since February; it was April now. Two whole months had gone by with search groups out in the woods of Hawkins to try and find the young man the whole time. He had disappeared with his Camaro, dismissing the conclusion that he was kidnapped.

Billy left willingly and hadn’t come back. Some said he got into an accident and that he and the car hadn’t been found. Some said that he was killed and the murderer took his car. But, those theories were all wrong. The only one in all of Hawkins that knew what really happened was Steve Harrington.

Steve could have spoken up about where Billy had gone - but he only knew when he left, not why or to where. He had some valuable information like how he behaved before he left, but he just couldn’t bring himself to think about Billy leaving him again. He’d rather think of the good times, before all this bullshit started.

Steve and Billy’s love had blossomed sometime during the beginning of January; Steve couldn’t remember the exact day. All Steve remembered of the time was that Billy had whisked him away for a ride in his Camaro one night. How could Steve ever forget that night? It was the first time in a long time that everything felt right - like it was meant to be this way all along. 

Billy had already given Steve all the heartfelt and mushy apologies he could manage concerning that night at the Byers’ home. Steve knew that Billy was genuine, because that was the first time Billy allowed himself to break down and cry in front of anybody - and he’d trusted Steve enough to reveal that shattered part of him. The night went how anybody would expect a guys’ night out to go; the two boys sang along to various songs on the radio, the volume loud enough to burst their eardrums (if they gave a shit).

Steve had thought the car ride was just for a random night time drive that Billy wanted to invite him out for. He was proven wrong when Billy pulled down a side road to head to the quarry.

“What’re we doing here?” Steve had asked and looked over at Billy, who was wearing sunglasses even though it was dark out. He seemed to simply use them for accessorizing. 

“Nothin’ special, Harrington. Don’t get your panties in a twist,” Billy had responded with his trademark cocky smirk on his face.

Apparently, in Billy’s personal dictionary, ‘nothing special’ meant ‘something very special’. When the two boys got out of the car, Steve noticed the setup that had to have been done by Billy; tall white candles lined and illuminated the area around a large army blanket on the ground where a little bit of grass had grown so that they wouldn’t be sitting on rocks. It looked so romantic - and that’s when Steve knew that Billy was treating him as more than just some guy he slept with once or twice.

Steve hadn’t expected Billy to do something like this. It just wasn’t him. But what Billy said to Steve next was very him.

“Look, Harrington… I care about you a lot. I don’t want you to think that I just used you as a fuck buddy. I mean, keep in mind- the sex was great. Amazing, actually,” and that’s when Steve had shut him up with a kiss.

When they pulled away and finally sat down on the army blanket on the ground, Steve offered Billy a gentle smile and then told him, “I know.”

The two months they spent together in a secret relationship were all reminiscent of that night at the quarry. They had no worries, nothing going wrong and no chance of anything bad happening to them.

Of course, Steve also knew that all good things eventually had to come to an end. In late February, Steve had a note taped to his locker in a handwriting he had recognized - the same handwriting he read dozens of times over when passing notes during class - Billy’s handwriting. 

All it said was: I’m sorry. Don’t rat me out, Harrington.

And that’s when the rumors started; Billy was dead, Billy had run away. Steve knew better. 

But why would Billy leave without telling Steve? How could he take Steve’s damaged heart, patch it up with bandages of his unconditional love and stitches of trustworthiness, and then take it with him - leaving Steve to bleed? 

Nobody knew that Steve Harrington and Billy Hargrove had been in a discreet relationship - they made sure to keep that a secret. However, everybody noticed the change in Steve when Billy left. Everybody thought that the two had just become very good friends and Steve missed him. 

‘If you miss him so much, why don’t you ever help look for him?’ somebody would ask him. 

‘Because he isn’t missing. He’s just gone,’ Steve wanted to say - but he just couldn’t. Billy didn’t know, but Steve promised not to. Billy knew that Steve would have done anything he wanted him to.

The tail end of February was nothing but a deep, dark depression that had Steve spiraling downward. It never stopped - he just waited for the day that he would finally crash and burn, the day that it would all be over - but it never came. Steve never remembered crying so much, maybe not since what had happened with Nancy in October. But at least that time, he knew how Nancy felt and what she really thought of him.

This time was different. Billy hadn’t left him anything but that stupid fucking note. That stupid fucking note was still crumpled up in Steve’s wallet from the day he found it, now tear stained from the times he held it and cried. 

March was no different. The same course of events in Steve’s personal life transpired in that following month. Nancy and Jonathan had been more than concerned about Steve’s depression. It had started to affect his grades at the middle of the semester, bringing his A’s to B’s, B’s to C’s, then C’s to D’s. 

Steve barely even hung out with the kids anymore. Those kids were once his pride and joy, they could make anything better. But not anymore. He still drove Dustin when he needed to, but the joy it brought him to see his curly haired little buddy began to fade over time. Dustin used to be able to get a smile out of Steve, but now… nothing.

Prom season was even more of a total spiral down into Hell itself. It only made Steve remember how Billy had teased him about having competition for Prom King and how it would really be something if they showed up together as each other’s dates. Since Billy had been gone, Steve didn’t consider going to Prom at all this year, even though it would be his only chance. 

The fact that it was his only chance to go to prom and the constant nagging from Jonathan and Nancy was what pushed his final decision to go. But he wouldn’t be very happy about it. Sure, it would be cool to go to prom with friends, if the friends weren’t dating each other and would be spending their time with Steve instead of with each other the whole night.

Prom preparation was just as awkward as Steve thought it would be. He met with Jonathan at his place for Joyce to help them get ready. By this time, Steve had cut his hair, back to the same way it had been his junior year. He ditched all the hair products and just let it be its own natural fluffy self. He just didn’t care anymore about how he looked. Even his tuxedo wasn’t new - it was leftover from his great uncle’s fifth wedding that he was in as a groomsman a couple years prior. 

“Alright, boys! Get in close!” Joyce grinned behind Jonathan’s camera that he had given her to take pictures with. 

“Mom, we’re not each other’s dates,” Jonathan couldn’t help but smile in return, “We don’t need to be that close.”

“Oh, I know, I know. But you boys just look so handsome! Come on Steve, give me a smile,” Joyce coaxed Steve, whose mouth was a thin line for most of the night while they got ready. 

Steve forced a smile in the direction of the camera. Although he was looking at the camera, his eyes were distant. He wondered, just like every night, where Billy was and if he even missed Steve. Of course he didn’t miss Steve - he’d have come back home by now; he’d have come back home to Steve.

After a few more awkward photos of the two boys, Steve and Jonathan departed in their own cars, Jonathan heading to the Wheeler household to pick up Nancy and Steve heading to the school by himself. 

While he drove, Steve loosened the death grip of his bow tie, thinking about ditching prom altogether and just heading home to get drunk. But he promised Nancy and Jonathan - and himself - that he would go out and try to have a good time. And if he didn’t, he gave himself full permission to simply kill himself.

Steve had thought of at least a dozen horrendous ways to end his own life after prom night. Hanging himself, that would be theatrical. Gun in his head, that would be messy and cause quite an impact. The messier the better, maybe then somebody would actually miss him. That was really all Steve wanted out of it - to be missed by at least one person and to be free of this hell without Billy. Without Billy, Steve couldn’t call what he was living a ‘life’.

Parking in front of the gymnasium, Steve checked his hair in the rear view mirror. It wasn’t as if he cared or as if it even mattered what his hair looked like. It would be ruined upon his death later that night anyway. Why bother to look good at all? Steve had actually stopped caring about his image as soon as Billy had left him. He had nobody to look good for, nobody to try for anymore… nobody to live for anymore.

‘Just suck it up for a few hours, Harrington. It’ll all be over soon,” Steve’s own voice was ringing in his head over and over again like an alarm waiting to be snoozed - because the thoughts would return again later even after being pushed aside.

Steve got out of his car and locked his doors, digging his wallet out of his back pocket to get his ticket from it. When he opened his wallet, he saw the crumpled slip of paper - Billy’s note. He sighed heavily and removed the neon blue entry ticket from his wallet, pushing the note back into it before shoving his wallet back into his pocket. 

He pushed his way in through the double doors of the gymnasium and stopped by the table to hand over his ticket. One of his teachers from his freshman year was there manning the table, hell if Steve remembered what his name was, but he forced a smile to the older man anyway. 

There was a decent crowd already, but they were mostly surrounding the photo station to get their pictures taken with some cheesy backdrop behind it. Seeing his classmates like Tommy and Carol looking so goddamn happy made him want to rip the backdrop down on top of them. It genuinely made him sick. Steve knew that he shouldn’t be so upset over other people’s happiness just because he had none - but he just couldn’t help it. ‘Why should prom be the best night of everybody’s life but mine?’

Taking his wallet back out of his pocket, Steve went to the bleachers and sat down. He grabbed a pen from the nearby voting table, then began scribbling on the back of Billy’s note - his own note for when he was gone later on.

In the words of Skeeter Davis - ‘I wake up in the morning and I wonder why everything’s the same as it was. I can’t understand how life goes on the way it does. Why does my heart go on beating? Why do these eyes of mine cry? Don’t they know it’s the end of the world? It ended when you said goodbye’.

He pulled the note away from his lap to examine it, taking a deep breath. He frowned and folded it up, putting it back into his wallet for safekeeping. At least when he disappeared from the world, someone would have a reason to connect Steve’s suicide to what he had been feeling for far too long.

That night, Steve didn’t dance with anybody or even leave his spot on the bleachers. He thought about hiding away in the bathroom, but he knew there would be couples making out in there. That was the last thing he needed to see under the circumstances. By this point in Steve’s unfortunate happenings, he had been long since cried out, otherwise he’d have cried there in the gym on prom night. What a sight to see - King Steve crying.

Steve decided he had stuck around long enough. It was time for him to say goodbye to Jonathan and Nancy and go home. He just hoped he wouldn’t chicken out last minute and not go through with all of his thoughts and plans once he got home. 

While waiting for Jonathan and Nancy, something caught Steve’s attention. The music had stopped, the only noise that filled the gym were the whispers of fellow students. Steve couldn’t make it out, but it apparently was important enough to stop the music and make everybody quiet down. Steve wouldn’t let whatever was going on ruin his plans of finally leaving this poor excuse for a-

And then he saw him.

‘No wonder prom night sucked. I must already be dead, lying on my bedroom floor bleeding out back home. This is eternal punishment, isn’t it? Being here, surrounded by people I don’t like… and Billy right there to top it all off? Alright, God. I get the joke, I’ve suffered enough.’

But, it wasn’t a joke. It was real. Wide eyes and open mouths followed Billy Hargrove’s every step as he made his way over to Steve at the back of the gym. When Billy was close enough, he allowed his lips to form a smirk - that smirk that Steve missed with every passing day. That smirk that Steve wanted to smack right off of Billy’s stupid beautiful face.

Billy looked just as immaculate as ever, of course. He wasn’t dressed for the occasion of prom at all - with his mostly unbuttoned white shirt underneath his leather jacket, the same ratty blue jeans and boots he always had. Well, he was immaculate to Steve anyway. 

The two boys were only a foot apart from one another, both radiating several different emotions at once. Billy looked like he hadn’t even left, strolling in like he just went on a vacation everybody knew about. And there was Steve, brown doe eyes wide in disbelief that he was seeing Billy again in a real life situation and not just in his nightmares.

Steve couldn’t seem to kick-start his voice box enough to speak. But the music resumed and neither of them needed to speak in that moment. Save the Last Dance for Me began playing after a moment. Christ, how fucking fitting.

“May I have this dance, Harrington?” Billy asked, voice just as smooth as ever. Nothing about him had changed.

Steve didn’t have to answer, Billy already had an arm around Steve’s waist, taking his other hand in his own and leading him into a dance. 

During that song, nobody else danced. It was the last dance of the night and the only ones who were dancing were Steve and Billy - together. They all stood aside, still in awe that Billy Hargrove had come back out of nowhere and that he was dancing with Steve Harrington - in a totally non-platonic way. They were too much in shock to boo the two boys and toss empty punch cups and homophobic slurs at them.

As the song came to an end, Billy and Steve had ended up outdoors in the grass behind the gymnasium, still caught in a gentle sway even after the event was wrapping up. 

They hadn’t exchanged any words during the song, but once there was nothing but silence and the soft sounds of insects chirping in the night, Steve spoke up. 

“You came back,” Steve muttered against Billy’s shoulder, mostly trying to hide the fact that he had somehow started crying, despite previously thinking he had been cried out.

“Of course I came back,” Billy replied, lips against the top of Steve’s head, “I come back to you with your fucking hair cut. Are you trying to look even more like a twink?”

That earned a gentle laugh from Steve as he shut his eyes. “Don’t change the subject. Where did you go? Why?” Steve finally stopped their swaying and pulled away, looking up to Billy and maintaining eye contact. “And why such a vague note? I thought you just… left me.”

Billy sighed, looking up at the night sky briefly, then back down to meet Steve’s eyes, “I wouldn’t ever leave you. But the note… it was because I didn’t wanna tell you where or why I was going.”

“Well, can’t you tell me now? Where was it so important that you had to let everybody think you died?”

“California,” Billy said simply. “I went to California.”

Steve rolled his eyes, “Great, so you went to California to tan and what?” That just didn’t cut it for Steve.

“I went to California to get a life started over there,” Billy sighed, not meeting Steve’s gaze anymore. 

That burned into Steve like a flame right on the skin. He swallowed hard and then moved a hand up to Billy’s chin, gripping it tightly to force him to look at him, “And you’re going back? To your life in California?”

Billy smiled, pressing a kiss against Steve’s open palm. “I was hoping to. But, not alone. When I said I got a life started over there, I meant for us. I got a house, jobs lined up for us… that’s why I left. So that when I came back, we’d be able to leave together.”

The burn that was in Steve previously turned into a good burn, like the burn of anesthesia kicking in to his system before surgery and a deep sleep. It was calming. Steve smiled suddenly and wrapped his arms around Billy’s neck. “You really mean that?” He asked, tears spilling down his cheeks as he embraced his long lost lover. 

“Of course, I mean it… But, not right away.” Billy pulled away and caressed Steve’s face with both large hands. “Two months… that’s a long time to be without you. It’s prom night, Harrington. Everybody else is going home to get laid. I think it’s about time you do the same.”

It didn’t take long for the two boys to ride off in the night in Billy’s Camaro to Steve’s empty house, music blaring just like they used to. With his head sticking out of the passenger side window, the wind blowing through his hair, Steve felt complete again. It was like he was a stained glass window that had been shattered during some historic war and pieced back together years later with a piece missing until recently the last piece was uncovered and returned to its whole. 

They made their way up the familiar stairs to Steve’s bedroom, nearly tripping over each other’s feet because of how close they were. Billy was right, two months really was too fucking long. The longing between them was soon quenched when Steve got the ridiculous tuxedo off and they tore the remainder of each other’s clothes off before falling back with each other onto the bed. 

Deep, loving, desperate kisses were exchanged between them, their hardened cocks rubbing against each other once they were completely naked. Tongues wandered over long lost skin and sensitive points of their bodies, lips caressing one another’s jaws and necks and covering each other in love bites. 

Billy wasn’t soft with Steve at all that night. And Steve didn’t mind that one little bit. The desperation and the sexual tension between them was thick like a mysterious fog in a cheesy horror movie from the 1950s. Along with Steve’s begging and Billy’s pure lust fueled actions, they made the most intense love they had ever made yet. The bed was squeaking beneath them, skin was sweaty and pressed hard against each other and the moans of ecstasy from the two filled the room like a holy fucking orchestra.

When all was put out into actions and the two boys were spent, they collapsed besides one another on the bed, chests heaving and hands gripping onto each other for dear life like their highs would have taken them away from Earth and into the sky. 

No more words were needed that night to describe how they felt. Billy and Steve both drifted off to sleep while holding one another close. Although their minds not linked in any supernatural way, they both dreamed that night of California beaches and plenty more ‘last dances’ to come in their near future.


End file.
